FOLLOW UP TO: Final Fantasy XI – The Anti-Final
Fantasy
Over three years ago, I wrote the crap linked above. Short story:
I thought that Final Fantasy XI shouldn't be labeled as part of the
numbered series since it was so different than the other games in
the series being an MMORPG. Looking back on that now, my reasoning
was total crap. I was afraid of what I knew little about. Yes, I had
seen screenshots, heard details, and read tons of information about
the game, but I just thought that what they were doing was an
abomination. These many years later, I can look back and see how
stupid my whole argument was, but at the time, I just knew I was
right. Pride can do that to a person. Maybe I was vainly hoping that
Square Enix would change the title of the game just to please me.
How sad I was, condemning a game way before I ever got a chance to
play it.
I actually went on to play Final Fantasy XI for just over a year
and a half. It really wasn't as bad as I was hoping that it was
going to be. Silly me, actually enjoying a game that I was so angry
about just a few months prior. This MMORPG was not the traditional
turn-based RPG that I had been hoping for after playing through
Final Fantasy X, so I was going to take my anger out on it, because
I thought that I should. Clearly, I wasn't thinking. I just wanted
to hate the game. Yes, I really think I wanted to hate it. It was
different. It was change. Who likes those? I was sure that I
wouldn't. I knew that Final Fantasy XI would just kill the series
and that there would be no hope ever again. I was almost certain
that everything would start moving in the direction of MMOs after
FFXI, and I just hated MMOs. Why? Because they weren't the
traditional turn-based RPGs that I was in love with. No, these games
were different.
Let's fast forward to late 2005 and the release of Dragon Quest
VIII. Not so much the release of DQVIII, but the demo of Final
Fantasy XII that came with it. Hurray! It's a new, offline Final
Fantasy game. What? It has some sort of real-time combat that looks
close to an MMORPG, yet it is not an MMORPG. For some reason I was
not as upset. Why? I think that my time in Final Fantasy XI showed
me that different is not always bad. Thankfully, the mindless
bashing of Final Fantasy XII seems to have died down, but for a
while it was really bad, especially around these parts. Cries of a
horrid battle system filled the forums, but those have slowly
tapered off into a slightly better opinion. People have now seen the
gambit system, read hands-on impressions of the English version, and
some people (read: game reviewers and pirates) have even played it
themselves. Is it still as bad as it once was thought to be? Is it
the next Anti-Final Fantasy as many feared it would be? Magic 8-Ball
says, "Unlikely." Final Fantasy XII is upon us. Let the masses
rejoice.
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